Honda S2000 Lease Questions

Comments

i'm in the same boat you are. want to pick up an 08 s2k lease in july or august but could not do it in june so i am hoping they have a good lease special in july or august. anyone with info would be appreciated. i think i should be able to get this car in the 300's with nothing out of pocket. i was looking into it a few years ago and was able to get into that ballpark. @ 34k it isn't that much of a stretch to get that car for that payment.

I've been kicking myself some for not going with the now expired lease program. With a lot of cash going out this month for home repairs and so-called retirement accounts sinking, I just couldn't pull the trigger. FWIW, my local dealer loaned me an 05 S from their used lot for several hours. It had 58K on the clock, and though there was evidence the car hadn't been driven lightly, it was still tight and strong. Later in the week drove a brand new Miata w/ power hardtop to satisfy my curiosity. It was nice, easier ingress/ egress, and more features. It was a GT with handling package, and just didn't feel as connected to the road. The S keeps poking at my brain. Despite an overall record month for Honda in June, there were only 273 S2000s sold across the US -- the worst June ever for the car. It sure would seem there might be more incentives coming, though maybe Honda can afford to let a low volume model just peeter out as with the old NSX.

Honda's offering low loan rates 0.9% for 36months and 2.9% beyond that, I believe. No such financing with a leftover 2007. Still, at ~ $27K, depreciation would be about a wash compared to an 08 at invoice, and cost basis is lower. With are no significant differences 07 vs 08, if the 07 is cosmetically new with minimal miles, seems it would be desirable -- especially if one intended to keep it for more than a few years. Some people prefer the more-than-5-spoke wheels on the 07. It's hard not to think, however, that Honda won't offer further incentives as the model year closes. Sales of the S have slowed to a crawl.

I love how they say "$7k off MSRP" to make it sound like a huge savings. There is about $3,200 in difference between invoice and MSRP, so the price is really $3,800 under invoice. Many dealers will deal down into hold back to sell an S, so figure that the old car would be about $3,300 cheaper than a new 08 should be.

The Edmunds incentives page shows $1k in dealer cash on the 08 if you do AHFC financing and they show rates at 0.9% to 36 months and 2.9% for 60 months. So that should make the 08 now $2,300 more than the left over 07 and less the interest you would have to pay for the loan - higher (used car rate?) for the 07 VS the cheap promo rate.

Down the road, the 08 will always be worth more money than the 07 but the difference gets less as the years go by. I would run the numbers on the 08 with the $1k dealer money and cheap rate VS the 07 with whatever your best rate is and see how it stacks up. If I was not going to save a good bit of money on the 07 I would get an 08, I guess.

Note that for 08 they revised the gauges (no big deal) and they also retuned the suspension for more "high speed stability". My 08 is still new, but I am thinking so far that this change is a bad thing. I did test drive other 08s and mine before I did the deal, but not at 9/10 speed in corners. Now my favorite clover-leaf on ramps that used to be no problem at 40 (not even near the limit) seem to be a challenge for the new car. It is early days for my car though and the 05 I had was wearing 3 to 4 32" tread on the rear tires. So as I get the new car more broken in things may improve. If they don't, I may have to look to see what is involved in "un-retuning" the suspension. But that is just me, it might be no problem for others or be preferable. I have had 3 S2000s now and the 01 was way tail happy and the 05 much less so and the 08 is tuned for more understeer or the tires have less grip (right now) or both.

(im)patiently waiting for september in hopes that they bring back some sort of lease program because i need something in the next few months so if things don't change for this car lease wise i'll be forced to get something else. anyone that has any info or advanced info please keep us updated. i wish i was in a position to get this car in june when the rate was dirt cheap. ugh.

not sure someone else can hopefully answer that. i don't even know if the lease programs are gonna be there in sept, that is my main concern. however, even with 680, if they bring the programs back you should be ok

Hi waynetek. Honda is not currently providing any lease support on the 2008 S2000. Through September 2nd, consumers who want to lease this car through Honda Finance will have to use its standard lease money factor. It is currently .00270 for consumers who qualify for its "Super Preferred" credit tier and pay a security deposit at lease signing. The last time that I checked, consumers needed a credit score of 710+ to qualify for the Super Preferred tier. A score of 680 would fall in Honda Finance's "Preferred" tier, which would have higher money factors.

looks like the 42 month lease give you the best stuff .00625 on the MF

47% residual

and he is claiming that they are getting $2500 cash back on the car for a lease. so it turns out a payment of like 450 or so for a 42 month lease with the taxes paid up front considering you are getting $2500 under invoice.

i'm a little hesitant to pull the trigger considering a few months ago you could get this car for like $400 a month with taxes and fees rolled in only paying first months out of pocket. not much of a bargain. with everything rolled in you are talking like $500 or so a month which is so stupid for a 35k car with a [non-permissible content removed] residual. not cost effective at all considering the 335i sport bmw sedan is like around the same thing and it rips the s2k apart on the road.

i just always liked the natural driving of the s2000 and the convertible and the look. the bmws are played out however the superior lease rates really make me think twice about this. i have till december to decide and am wondering whether i should roll the dice and see what oct/nov hold for the s2k. the residual isn't getting any better and the cash back may not be there but the money factor i would like to see go down. 270 with tip top credit is rediculous on a 34,000 msrp car.

Hi aramism. Honda did not introduce lease support on the 2008 S2000 in September. However it did introduce a new $2,500 dealer cash incentive on it . That should help you get a much better deal than was possible in August.

I used the $2500 incentive to buy my new S2000 after months of watching, missed opportunites to lease, waiting and researching. With identical 09s at higher prices coming, I couldn't see a reason to wait. It's a great car. The price for this level of quality, performance and reliability is simply unbeatable.

ok so the base price for how i want this car msrp is 34,970 with dest.

invoice as per edmunds it $31,725

less $2500 i'm at $29,225 as a base cap cost

with a 42 month lease term @.00265 and 47% residual (which is what the salesman told me has the best residual:MF ratio) i am coming up with a payment of $425 a month without taxes and i will roll in taxes for a payment of $462.

is ther more i can squeeze out of that deal? maybe lower the MF? or lower cap cost. i realize i'm under invoice and was thinking about getting them to chop into holdback but am i correct in saying that holdback does not apply for them after 90 days? i know they have had the car there since the spring the same exact one i want to lease.

ok i'm in the heat of battle with a few dealers for the s2000 but i guess this is a general car lease question i am hoping someone with knowledge on this can help.

so i'll try to make it as easy as understand as possible. in an effort to lower the cap cost to accomdate my payment comfort zone i was thinking...

since i turned my last car in i have been driving my mothers lease extended 2003 civic lx 4dr sedan. the lease was up last year but she extended it and the extension is due back in december. so whenever she wants it can be returned. the car is pretty under the mileage allowance. so basically the car has positive equity. though there are a few months left the payoff amount for the lease is $5500 and the average i am getting in between kelly blue book and edmunds and seeing a few on sale it is about 7500-8500 as trade in value. so i was wondering why the dealer (same one that leased the car out in the first place so technically it is honda-honda lease) can't buy the car and give me credit for the difference since they can probably sell it for 8k up on their lot once they get it into shape and stuff.

now i thought of this because when i got my last car (infi m45) i had an accord lease at the time and i had like a year left on the lease and was already over the total mileage so they bought out my old car from the bank (i broke the lease) and i swallowed the negative equity ($2500) into my cap cost for the infiniti. so surely the same can be done but it reverse.

so when i ran this idea by the dealer they looked at the car then they were like, we can't do it because it is on an extended lease and if it was on a regular lease it would be different. i asked why what difference does it make and he couldn't really explain so he kind of danced around and changed the topic which lead me to believe he was BSing since logic tells me i should be right with what i am trying to accomplish.